Announcment of New American Memory Collection

[Danna Bell-Russel]

National Digital Library Program - Library of Congress

Omaha Indian Music from the American Folklife Center is now available on
American Memory

The latest addition to the American Memory historical collections
documents the music of the Omaha Indian Tribe. Omaha Indian Music
includes 44 recordings made by Francis La Flesche and Alice Cunningham
Fletcher between 1895 and 1897, as well as recordings made by staff of
the American Folklife Center at the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration
pow-wow and the 1985 Hethu’shka Society concert held at the Library of
Congress. Also included with this collection are interviews with members
of the Omaha tribe that provide background information about the songs
performed, field notes and tape logs made by Center staff during the
1983 pow-wow, and
photographs and related publicity materials from the various
performances. This presentation was made possible by the generous
support of the Texaco Foundation.

The oldest recordings in the collection were made by Francis La Flesche,
the second son of Omaha chief Joseph La Flesche, and Alice Cunningham
Fletcher, a student of Native-American life and a champion of the
emerging discipline of anthropology.  During the late 1800s and early
1900s, the two worked to collect materials to document the history of
the Omaha people and eventually published The Omaha Tribe in 1911. They
were the first to document Omaha music on the reservation.  In 1985, 44
of their recordings were published as an LP by the American Folklife
Center. The liner notes and other documents related to this recording
are included with the online collection.

In the 1980s, staff from the American Folklife Center visited the Omaha
tribe to present copies of the Fletcher and La Flesche recordings.
During these visits staffers were able to record the music from pow-wows
such as the one in 1983. Users of this collection can listen to that
pow-wow from beginning to end.  Folklife staff were also able to
interview members of the tribe about their music. The interviews provide
contextual information about the songs. Of special interest will be
segments from an interview with John Turner, an elder of the tribe who
was a singer and flute player, and Rufus White, the lead singer of the
Host Drum in 1983.   These recordings, which were made a few months
before John Turner’s death and shortly before the 1999 pow-wow, provide
translations and interesting insight into the songs presented.

The Omaha Tribe presently has 4,950 members, with approximately half
living on the 261-mile Omaha reservation located in Macy, Walthill, and
Rosalie, Nebraska.

This collection can be found at the following URL:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/omhhtml/

Please direct any questions to ndlpcoll at loc.gov